On Plans & Punches: AKA What It's Like to Get Punched In the Face

“You were fearless until you got punched in the face.”

Coach Vincent’s oh so true words to me after I got punched in the face in my first sparring match. It was shocking. It stung. But it was fleeting. I was fine. And I meant it. My first real thought (other than do I still have my teeth and my nose) was “I guess I’m actually doing this.” Maybe there was a little pride…along with a little WTF.

But it was also real – in the course of a month where I went from throwing theoretical punches to receiving actual ones, I remembered, I was doing something that had real impact (pun intended). For all my jokes about “getting punched in the face is what I do daily as a female founder,” I actually had just been punched in the face. It was not just a risk I was taking, but an inevitable consequence of becoming a boxer. And I was proud.

Where the Plan Meets the Punch

"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face"

There’s a reason Mike Tyson’s quote is famous amongst boxers and non-boxers alike – because it’s true. It’s the moment when theory meets reality.  All the footwork drills, the perfect combos you’ve rehearsed, the sparring scenarios you’ve run through in your head—gone in an instant when a glove lands square on your cheek. No different than the arguments we have in our head or cases we plan out – the only thing certain in our plans is that there’s no certainty.

Get knocked down...and get back up again.

We like to believe that if we plan hard enough, we can outsmart chaos — that control is something we can earn. Trust me, I’m a Virgo. I don’t know much about astrology, but I get what it’s like to be a constantly disappointed perfectionist (aka a Virgo). It’s an ego check in its purest form. You can tell yourself you’re ready, convince yourself you’ve thought of every angle, believe your confidence makes you untouchable. Then the punch lands. And in that split second you realize readiness isn’t about avoiding the hit — it’s about absorbing it, steadying yourself, and showing you’re still in the fight.

The Pain & The Replay

“It’s not about how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get back up.”

And I was still in the fight. So of course, that wasn’t the last time I got hit over the next weeks of sparring, and what led to a punch that made me look like I’d just murdered somebody. But here’s the thing: being hit in the face doesn’t define you.

What you do in the seconds after—that’s the whole story.

Murder or Sparring?

Let me be clear: it hurt. Not then as the adrenaline rushed and I was desperate to not bleed all over the place, but the next day, and a week later when I was wondering if my nose might actually be broken (a week later, it was like it never happened). But punched or not, I’ve learned that pain alone doesn’t define you. What you do in the seconds after—that’s what matters.

When I reviewed the footage, I was proud of myself – even though my head ricocheted back, I saw myself resume my boxer’s stance ready for the next move. It was actually my opponent that stood up straight to tell me “You’re bleeding,” as I waved her off. It took me looking down at my shirt to actually realized what happened - and how profusely I was bleeding.

But what happened after was the best part - my fight club team ran to get me towels and as I desperately tried to stop the bleeding, cleaned off my gear, and welcomed me to the "you've been really hit and survived it" club. I felt like I got a hero's welcome back the next session too. And a note on calling them a team - - don't think that just because there's only one of us in the ring at a time that we're not a team. These are the people that have taught me how to train by training with me. That is teamwork.

The Real Lesson

The Day After

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” 

There’s a reason Muhammad Ali is known as “The Greatest.” It’s not because he never got hit. It’s because he understood what the hit meant.

The real lesson wasn’t in surviving a punch—it was in learning and re-learning not just how to tighten my guard, but how to remember that I’d be fine after it. Not to let the fear override the techniques I learned and instincts I’d gained.  Because the truth is, you’ll always take hits. The point is to make fewer of them deter you. And don't look away when they're coming at you. (That's real boxing and life advice).

So let me add a quote of my own to the mix:

“The punch isn’t the problem. The choice you make after it lands is.”

That choice isn’t always glamorous. Sometimes it’s a stumble sideways, sometimes it’s a step back, sometimes you end up with a black eye. Sometimes you have to do a work video call as you're trying to stop the bleeding (true story). But as long as it’s movement, it's progress, and as long as you’re still in the fight, it counts.

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